


Hold My Hand Tight, Should We Run Away?

by maelstromdeparture



Series: On The Waves [2]
Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Surfers, Brotherhood, Coming of Age, Dancer Beomgyu, Famous Kang Taehyun, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Idol Choi Soobin, Surfer Huening Kai, Surfer Yeonjun, Writer Huening Kai, i should have more of a plan by now, kind of?, there will probably be romance eventually, there's a running storyline they read that's fantasy involving them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24451819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maelstromdeparture/pseuds/maelstromdeparture
Summary: Huening Kai wants to get out of Hawaii, and far away from his aunt and uncle who he lives with. Once he makes the decision that he cannot stay he wants to see how far he can run and how long it will take him to find somewhere that he doesn't feel like he needs to keep running. Finding himself in Sydney, Australia for university, he meets Choi Beomgyu, a dancer who wishes he was still a kid and was best friends with his cousin that he never sees now, and Choi Yeonjun, a surfer looking for a greater purpose to point his path towards. The two of them lead to a tired and overworked idol and a floundering heir to an international business.Friendships are made, bonding happens, and somewhere along the way they all find somewhere to call home and the people they wanted to become all along.
Series: On The Waves [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766059
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Hold My Hand Tight, Should We Run Away?

**Author's Note:**

> this actually takes place before the first one of this series and is about how Kai and the TXT boys ended up in Australia 
> 
> which means this is also pre-seungmin/jeongin so there's a little bit of pining seungmin/jeongin
> 
> this is also set up a little different, the format is slightly different and jumps povs a bit instead of just sticking with one person's side of the story
> 
> also base fact for this world that is necessary information!!! there exists a card game called Magic Island that Beomgyu, Soobin, and Kai played when they were younger and is now a video game and a cartoon series too, Kai runs a popular fanfiction account for a handful of different fandoms but the main one is Magic Island which is some cross of Breath of the Wild and Dungeons and Dragons.   
> that's the explanation for the fantasy tag ;D 
> 
> unlike the last one, the majority of this work's dialogue is in English so the Korean is italicized this time around, i try to make sure i specify anyway lol 
> 
> i think that's everything important   
> enjoy!

The idea had been to get as far as he could. To see how far he could run if he really went for it. Kai had held his breath when the letters arrived and he looked at them sitting on his bed. Four from four different countries around the world and the one for the university in Hawaii nearest to home. He picked up the letter from the school he’d applied to in London and set it aside the moment he read we regret to inform you. The school in Germany also read we regret to inform you. He picked up the letter from the University of Seoul and hoped that this one didn’t also read a denial. To Kai’s dismay, while he had been accepted there was no possible way he could afford it with the scholarship he had been offered. The last letter was his last chance or he would be staying put, stuck at home and never having the opportunity to find out who he really was away from his family’s pressure and influence. He scanned the letter hope flourishing as he read an acceptance, and the moment he read the words full ride he wanted to scream. He was going to Sydney. He was going to get out of here and he would still have a beach available. He could surf in his free time, he could get a part time job. He would never have to come back to Hawaii again. He could escape his aunt and uncle’s house once in for all.

Kai told exactly one person that he was leaving. His cousin who helped him pack his entire life up into his suitcases. His cousin who had bought the plane ticket for him and driven him to the airport and hugged him and told him to call her if he needed help, needed anything. Kai wouldn’t miss her and knew she wouldn’t miss him. But she was the only one that hadn’t acted like he was a burden and weird and a shame to the family. She was the only one that Kai respected and would willingly acknowledge as a relative after this if he didn’t have to. Kai waved goodbye from the other side of the TSA checkpoint and then found his flight gate. It was time to start over. He could learn who he was now. Kai had never been so excited.

“Flight 4410 to Sydney, Australia boarding now!” announced a voice and Kai stood up, gripping his carry on in one hand and his ticket in the other. He followed an older couple onto the plane and picked a window seat. This was the beginning and Kai couldn’t wait. The plane took off and Kai pulled his laptop out once they were at the appropriate altitude. He had a long flight ahead of him and may as well use it to write. His whole life was ahead of him and Kai was too excited to be nervous.

Beomgyu’s phone dinged with a notification interrupting the music it was playing. He pushed his sweaty hair out of his face and moved over to pick it up. He turned his music off and slid down to the floor, leaning against the mirror of the empty dance studio and clicked on the notification saying there was an update to his favorite fanfic author who wrote fics for the card game Beomgyu had played with Soobin when they were younger. It had been a long time since Beomgyu had that sort of a relationship with his cousin. Soobin was the successful cousin that made it big globally. Beomgyu was just the disappointment that was studying dance abroad. No matter how many awards he won or how well he did he wouldn’t measure up to Soobin the idol. Still, it was nice to have that link to Soobin. Something he could text his cousin about and still connect with him on. Something they still shared. He missed being young. Life had been easier. Beomgyu got the feeling his favorite author understood the feeling well from the way he wrote. He stretched to grab his water bottle and took a sip from it before clicking on the notification.

Hours away Choi Soobin’s phone buzzed with a notification, pulling his attention away from where he was scribbling lyrics in a book. He rubbed his face tiredly and glanced at the clock. It was far too late for him to still be at the studio. He picked up his phone and glanced at the notification and smiled at it.

 _New Update! Can’t We Just Leave the Monster Alive by Kai Kamal._ He tapped it and wondered if Beomgyu was reading it in Sydney at that moment. He was probably still in the practice room. Soobin should call him. It had been awhile since they’d talked, since Soobin’s schedule as an idol was so busy. He hoped Beomgyu was doing well as he started to read.

Across the Seoul Kang Taehyun woke up to his phone going off and groaned as he rolled over to check, hoping it wasn’t important. He sat up and squinted at the glaring light of his cell phone as he rubbed a hand through his hair. He smiled when he realized it was an updated by his favorite author. Taehyun had been reading Kai Kamal’s fics for years now, since the very first one. It made him feel less lonely. It felt like there were others in the world that he could connect with. He’d never played the game that Kai Kamal normally wrote for, but he so vividly created the world and the characters that it didn’t matter. Taehyun felt like he knew Kai Kamal and an update always made his day a little better. He was so tired of being lonely. He had everything he could ever want with him inheriting his mother’s company, he liked the cosmetic business too, but it was impossible to make any sort of real friends when everyone just wanted to be friends with him for his connections. Taehyun had been a reader of Kai Kamal’s fics for long enough that Kai Kamal knew his birthday and would purposely update on it every year just for him. Taehyun didn’t know Kai Kamal’s real name or where he lived and Kai Kamal didn’t know his, but Taehyun felt closer to the fanfic author than he had to anyone else in his life. So despite the ungodly hour of the day he pushed his pillows up his bed and flipped his lamp on and settled in to read the newest update.

Back in Sydney thirty minutes away from where Beomgyu was sitting against a mirror in an empty dance studio a blue haired boy dropped down into the sand beside his backpack, a surfboard laying beside him as he reached for his water bottle. His friends Felix and Seungmin were splashing each other in the water laughing and talking loudly in Korean, Seungmin teasing Felix for his Aussie accent. Yeonjun’s phone blinked telling him he’d received a notification and he smiled as he picked it up.

 _New update from Kai Kamal._ Yeonjun glanced up to make sure the other two weren’t going to need him for awhile. They noticed and wandered over to him.

“Something important?” asked Felix dropping down to sit beside him while Seungmin crouched nearby, digging out his own water bottle.

“Update for that author I like,” said Yeonjun shrugging, “it can wait.”

“Nah, go ahead, we’re gonna screw around awhile longer. You’re always happier if you read them right away,” said Felix shaking his head, “we’ll go for coffee after. Jackson might want to talk about it.”

“Yeah, it’s just a chapter, right?” asked Seungmin, “at most it’ll take you forty minutes. Me and Lix don’t have anything going on for awhile and we’d rather screw around in the water some more. We’ll stay close.” Yeonjun nodded.

“Alright,” he agreed. “And then we go get coffee.”

“Yeah, and go to SKZ,” said Felix nodding.

“You have got to ask Jeongin out at some point, Seungminnie,” said Yeonjun grinning.

“Well, yes, but that day is not today,” said Seungmin shaking his head, “read your thing.” Yeonjun laughed and watched as the other two bolted back towards the water. He loved it here on the beaches of Sydney. More than he’d ever loved anywhere else. It was home in a way Korea never had been. He was glad he had Felix and Seungmin and the others, even if he would always long for the sort of connection that Seungmin and Felix shared and that they shared with Chan and Chan shared with Jeongin. Maybe he’d find it someday. He shook the thought from his head and pushed his wet hair back to keep it out of his face. He pulled one knee up and leaned against it as he tapped the notification.

**Can’t We Just Leave the Monster Alive**

**_Kai Kamal_ **

_Chapter – A New Adventure_

In this world was a divide and you fell on either one or the other. Those unfortunate enough to fall in between were cursed to wander Mawogi for the rest of their lives searching but never finding a place where they belonged. You were magic or you were not. And the magic and the not got along well and lived side by side but those that were both or neither, they didn’t fit. They would never fit and never find somewhere they would. Ningning was one such person. Someone who fell in between the places in the world, a person that didn’t stand on either side of the divide but was lost wandering the void in between. Between those paths that were given and accepted of the world, Ningning was half and half, his father being non and his mother being a water naiad, leaving Ningning stuck between the two, his father’s world of men and his mother’s world of magic, a witch if you wished to be particular which people always did. They wanted to know exactly what you were in order to hate you. Ningning had spent his whole life pretending to fit with his father’s world, doing his best to live a normal life, but he and his father both knew it would only last so long. The day had come when Ningning’s father passed the family business down to Ningning’s cousin. The day that Ningning had known would come, the day he would be an adult. For even though he himself was not a naiad, the traditions of the naiads pulled him from his home forward into the world. For a naiad of age would leave home and travel to find their own name and their own place in the waters of the world and Ninging’s birthday saw him packing his bag and strapping on his boots. He didn’t know where he was going just that it was time to go, that he must go.

He didn’t fit here. He wouldn’t fit there and he knew it. He walked the line between magic and not, between human and more than. His life was walking a tightrope between odd and monster and if he lost his balance he’d fall into monster and no one would look back. So he would keep his balance and walk the line between good and bad and wrong and right or at least what society defined to be so, for what does society truly know? Certainly not Ningning nor anything about him, because no one had ever tried. His father’s last gift had been a map of the surrounding kingdoms that he could get ahold of and a sword for Ningning to carry for protection. His magic would only get him so far. Ningning came to the first fork in the road outside of town and pulled out the map before deciding he may as well walk to the end of the world. It would take him through the Forest of Monsters, but Ningning was nearly a monster himself so would it matter?

He could do tasks for local people to help where he could as he traveled in order to eat. He may need to hunt too. If he found himself near a body of water it wouldn’t be difficult to eat, but in a dense forest Ningning wasn’t sure how much water he would come across.

Decision made, Ningning turned his steps to the left and started down the path to the forest. If he kept moving forward maybe he would find what he was looking for. He just had to keep running towards it, if he kept reaching someday someone would reach back. As long as he kept moving it would work out and he would find his place in this world. At least he hoped. So, Ningning set off into the world, knowing it’s darkness and hatred and still hoping to find light within it waiting for him.

**Author's Note:**

> more on the way as i have time to write :( i'm unfortunately busy and summer classes start soon :(((( 
> 
> but i do have a vague idea of a plan and there's more coming!


End file.
